"Nyon, 4th Septembre 2010Dear Mr Chairman,I was your Corporate Food Safety Manager from 2000 to 2010. I write to you today for two reasons: first, to share with you my concerns regarding a culture and management practices in Nestlé, which undermine food safety; and, second, to inform you of my personal experiences while attempting toimprove the situation.I long nourished the hope that you would be interested in meeting the person responsible for dealing with everyday problems of the Company in an area as important as the safety of Nestlé products. However, to my regret we have never had the opportunity to meet and discuss the food safety situation in the Company. As both corporate-level management of food safety and my professional status deteriorated to the point of being unacceptable, I was compelled to report my concerns to Management with the expectation that a fair evaluation of the situation would be undertaken. In the event, my efforts were in vain. Mr Chairman, I always found listening to your speeches a source of motivation and inspiration. Moreover, Nestlé Policies and Management Principles portray a model Company, with the most laudable corporate values. A glance at the Company building, offices and facilities is enough to make any outsider believe that this is an ideal working environment. However, after only a short time, I was profoundly disappointed at how people are managed, the discrepancies between your public statements and the private deeds of managers; between the Company’s policies and management principles and actual practices; and between the proclaimed values and the prevailing fear culture (including mobbing and intimidation) that managers nourished. I was particularly saddened by the growing realisation that Management was not only aware of this situation but that it was also fully accepted by the very people who should have been, in fact, the inhouse guardians of policy compliance.I failed to see the flawless execution of policy that you promoted in your speeches. Didn’t you state that the management of food quality and safety depends on the quality of management? What can be said about food safety management when the members of Management themselves do not respect Company policies and principles? If I dared challenge the Company’s food safety and human resource practices I can assure you that it was not out of disrespect. On the contrary, it was because of my loyalty to the Company, my colleagues and the consumers we served. It was also because for me the safety of our products and respect for our colleagues were non-negotiable values. Involving staff in building a better company unavoidably includes exposing shortcomings. But surely it is better to receive timely feedback from within than to be publicly embarrassed later by failures.You have often expressed your commitment to food safety. Please allow me to share with you my own vision in this regard. Over and above the technical and scientific aspects, the foundation of good food safety management is an equitable system of people management that is based on professionalism, fairness, objectivity, open-mindedness, respect for staff and, most importantly, for their dignity. I regret to say that I failed to see this approach implemented at the Nestlé Head Office. My own situation is a case in point. On several occasions I reported – first to members of Management and then, in November 2009, to Mr Paul Bulcke – serious shortcomings in food safety management, the professional difficulties I faced, and the shameful treatment that I experienced in Nestlé. I hoped that I would be given the opportunity to provide a full and accurate account of events during the period 2005-2010. In response, my contract was terminated with no opportunity to provide details of my experience. Nevertheless, I am prepared to meet with you, at your convenience, to share my observations on practices in Nestlé and their eventual repercussions on Nestlé’s reputation and consumers. I would also hope to use this opportunity to identify an equitable solution for my personal difficult situation, another consequence of the past events in Nestlé" source : http://www.rts.ch/info/3989665.html/BINARY/Mr+CEO.pdfmore here (in french) http://www.rts.ch/info/economie/3988696-une-ex-responsable-de-la-securite-alimentaire-depose-plainte-contre-nestle.htmlmore again (in french) more (in german ) : http://www.handelszeitung.ch/unternehmen/nestle-im-keim-erstickt

The one-time CIA director didn't just disclose secrets to his mistress. He shared with her some of the most sensitive information the Pentagon has.

David Petraeus, a retired four-star general and former director of the CIA, pleaded guilty Tuesday to giving highly classified information to his ex-mistress. The information came in the form of eight black books that contained everything from identities of covert officers to discussions with President Obama.

The Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation alleged back in 2012 that Petraeus gave secret information to Paula Broadwell, but the seriousness of the information wasn’t clear until now.

While he was commander of coalition forces in Afghanistan, Petraeus “maintained bound, five-by-eig...

We could go on about the inherent contradiction of “Downton Abbey” as the biggest hit on public television – that a series about a fading, genteel (and Gentile) British aristocracy and its servants dominates the schedule of a broadcasting service mandated to promote diversity and give a voice to the underrepresented. And sometime soon, we will talk about precisely that and more.

And we could go on at length about the Downton fantasy vs. reality ratio, the series “polishing up history to make the class divide less savage,” as British journalist Polly Toynbee pointed out when the show’s current season began. “What we never see,” she wrote in The Guardian, “is bedraggled drudges rising in freezing shared attics at 5:30 am; slopping out chamber pots, heaving coal, black-leading grates, hauling cans of hot water with hands already made raw by chilblains and caustic soda. We never dwell on the hardship of scrubbing floors, or scrubbing clothes, or scouring grease; in pre-detergent days, they were up to their elbows all day long.”

But for now, let’s talk instead about Congressman Aaron Schock, Republican from Illinois. You’ve heard about how his interior decorator pal, proprietor of a company called Euro Trash, redecorated Schock’s new Capitol Hill office in high “Downton Abbey” style – which is more than somewhat ironic because, as Josh Israel at ThinkProgress pointed out, “Schock has repeatedly voted against federal funding for public broadcasting, voting to defund National Public Radio and for a Paul Ryan budget that zeroed out all funds for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.” But even more important, Schock’s expensive tastes and how he spends money to make money for his party tells a sad story of the state of Congress and campaign fundraising.

Why did #israel decide to support #Syria n rebels? - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East

After four years of fighting in Syria, Israel no longer seems neutral, and though the Israeli security establishment won't discuss it with the public, signs actually indicate that Israel has chosen to support the Sunni rebels.

‘ “I reach out to you as someone who is troubled to see the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians continue apparently without an end in sight.

“In fact, there is an end in sight. It’s known as the two-state solution–a secure, democratic Israel as the Jewish State alongside an independent Palestinian state. Even Israel’s nationalist Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, has come to see this as the shape of the future. The problem is how to reach that end point. It’s something we should be concerned about–not only as world citizens, but as Americans.

“You might recall the episode in the original Star Trek series called, Let That Be Your Last Battlefield. Two men, half black, half white, are the last survivors of their peoples who have been at war with each other for thousands of years, yet the Enterprise crew could find no differences separating these two raging men.

“But the antagonists were keenly aware of their differences–one man was white on the right side, the other was black on the right side. And they were prepared to battle to the death to defend the memory of their people who died from the atrocities committed by the other.

“The story was a myth, of course, and by invoking it I don’t mean to belittle the very real issues that divide Israelis and Palestinians. What I do mean to suggest is that the time for recriminations is over. Assigning blame over all other priorities is self-defeating. Myth can be a snare. The two sides need our help to evade the snare and search for a way to compromise.

“The Middle East is only getting more tumultuous. The upheavals throughout the region show that what happens in the Middle East can’t help but affect us in the United States. This year, we’ve seen oil prices rise sharply and America become involved militarily in Libya. The cost to American lives and our economy continues to rise at a time when unemployment and deficits are sapping our country’s strength.” ‘+

Paul Buhle, Truthout: Adam Keller has spent his life advocating for peace and the creation of a truly independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In this interview, he explains the history of his activism and how peace is truly possible.

Making Me Pay For My Crimes Would Send “Message of Uncertainty to the Markets": Bank President to Spanish Judge

“It’s just a matter of time before injustice prevails…”

A Spanish judge by the name of Fernando Andreu recently violated one of the most important unwritten rules of global finance: namely, that banks and bankers are effectively immune to all laws of all lands (barring, of course, Iceland). As I reported roughly 10 days ago, Andreu had ordered Bankia, its parent company state-owned BFA, the bank’s former chairman, Rodrigo Rato, and three other former directors to pay an €800 million civil liability bond for signing off on fraudulent financial statements in the run up to the bank’s 2011 IPO.

If the defendants fail to cough up the full amount before March 13th, the authorities will embargo assets belonging to them with the equivalent market value. With the clock ticking down and the day...

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s strident and continual harping on the alleged dangers of Iran to Israel’s security. Netanyahu has raised this issue repeatedly over the past 20 years, often predicting that Iran was as little as a year away from having a nuclear warhead. Decades later, it does not, and Israel is still there. Many observers believe that Netanyahu is performing as a magician does, trying to make the audience take its eye over the real sleight of hand by pointing in the direction of a distraction.

There are, in fact, more pressing dangers to Israel than Iran’s nuclear reactors,

Extensive and years-long investigations of Iran’s civilian nuclear enrichment program by the International Atomic Energy Agency have never revealed any evidence that Iran has a parallel nuclear weapons program. Only a couple of years ago, the Israeli defense minister was publicly admitting that Iran had not made a decision to weaponize its nuclear program.

Iran is just doing what Japan, South Korea, Germany, Ukraine, Sweden and Spain have done– develop nuclear reactors to generate electricity. By doing so, Iran can save its oil and natural gas for export to earn foreign exchange instead of eating its own seed corn. None of the countries just mentioned, who have their own nuclear energy program

#Iraq’s Attack Against #ISIS Catches U.S. ‘By Surprise’ (without #US help .. but with #Iran)

The biggest offensive against ISIS so far happened without American help—but with plenty of assistance from Iran.

The Iraqi military launched a major campaign to take back a key city from the self-proclaimed Islamic State over the weekend—a move that caught the U.S. “by surprise,” in the words of one American government official.

The U.S.-led coalition forces that have conducted seven months of airstrikes on Iraq’s behalf did not participate in the attack, defense officials told The Daily Beast, and the American military has no plans to chip in.

Instead, embedded Iranian advisers and Iranian-backed Shiite militias are taking part in the offensiv

WASHINGTON -- A Justice Department investigation has found that the Ferguson Police Department discriminates against black residents and routinely violates the Constitution and federal law, an official told The Huffington Post.

▶ #Chomsky on #Snowden & Why #NSA Surveillance Doesn't Stop Terror While the U.S. Drone War Creates It - YouTube

http://democracynow.org - World-renowned political dissident, linguist and author Noam Chomsky discusses why National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden should be welcomed back to the United States as a hero and why those who authorized the government surveillance he exposed should be on trial, not him. Chomsky also argues that while mass surveillance has been ineffective in stopping terrorism, programs like the global U.S. drone war have helped spread it to areas all around the world.

The most persistent myth about genetically modified organisms (GMOs) is that they are necessary to feed a growing global population. Highly effective marketing campaigns have drilled it into our heads that GMOs will produce more food on less land in an environmentally friendly manner. The mantra has been repeated so often that it is considered to be truth. Now this mantra has come to Africa, sung by the United States government and multinational corporations like Monsanto, seeking to open new ma

The government and the opposition do battle as ordinary Venezuelans weather an economic crisis

"

Coups and countercoups. Crackdowns. Economic crackups. Seven cents for a tube of toothpaste and $755 for a box of condoms. As a result of the latter, Bloomberg says, “Venezuela has one of South America’s highest rates of HIV infection” (disturbing, and, Bloomberg didn’t mention, exactly the same rate of HIV infection as in the United States). Falling oil prices. The arrest of an opposition leader. Washington plots. Human Rights Watch tweets. SouthAmericarallies.

What is going on in Venezuela? I have no idea. I’ve been too busy trying to track down the cameraman who accompanied Bill O’Reilly to El Salvador, where he didn’t report on the El Mozote massacre. So I asked a trusted panel of experts. Here’s what they say.

Above all, Miguel Tinker Salas, a professor of history at Pomona and author of The Enduring Legacy, a history of the Venezuelan oil industry, insists we have to keep perspective. Mexico, where the bodies pile high and the country is in the middle of a humanitarian crisis of staggering proportion, gets a “free pass” by the United States. Not so much Venezuela (where things might be bad but not 83,000-corpses bad).

John Pilger, Truthout: Again and again, in Afghanistan, Iraq, Ukraine and elsewhere, state lies to the public - with the help of corporate media - have allowed the United States to wage war abroad as a means to control other nations and their natural resources.

Six months after the end of a devastating Israeli assault on Gaza, aid agencies have condemned the lack of progress in rebuilding Gaza, saying reconstruction of tens of thousands of destroyed homes, schools and hospitals has been "woefully slow," with 100,000 Palestinians still displaced. Our guest, Noam Chomsky, notes it was the Pentagon that supplied many of the weapons used in the massive destruction. "The arms were taken from arms the U.S. stores in Israel. They are pre-positioned in Israel for eventual use by U.S. forces," Chomsky says. "Israel is regarded essentially as an offshore military base."

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